Rancho Cactus

We went for a 2 hours horseback ride and were severely disappointed.When we arrived, we saw that it was only the two of us and the guide, so I thought, great! Especially because it was our first time on a horse and we obviously didn't feel very confident. Yet our guide, despite knowing this and having only us to take care of, couldn't have care less.He told us how to go left, right, stop, move faster before getting us on the horse and that was pretty much it.The moment we started, he started riding solo, barely looking back, except for pushing us to go faster (my horse was agitated and I also had no idea of the technique to use to hold myself properly on the animal when it was trotting..so it wasn't very enjoyable neither for me nor the animal I guess) sometimes he was even talking on the phone..All in all, very disappointing by this experience and the lack of empathy from this guide.

[ALERTE]N'allez pas manger là bas. Le menu à 7000 pesos est une mascarade :Une cuisine faussement élaborée et qui ne rassasie en personne après une bonne journée de randonnée.Malgré que cet établissement est adoubé par le guide du routard, méfiez vous.Fraternellement

Super expérience.Balade dans la vallée de la lune. Une journée à cheval.C'était super. Joaquo le guide était sympathique et attentif à nous.Les cheveux étaient réactifs et attentifs aux ordres. On a pas mal galopé.Le circuit est top. On a vu des paysages magnifiques.

Comida sin ningun interés y muy cara en comparación con otros restaurantes.

Great food and friendly service. Often they have good value lunch specials that include an entree and a main. Very fresh.

A friend and I stayed in San Pedro de Atacama only for a week and we wanted to get as much out of the desert as possible. So we decided against day trips but rather for a 3-day horseback riding tour. That was the best decision!We both had never sat on a horseback before but what could go wrong.A day before the trip we met with Valerie, the owner of the ranch, to talk about what would be needed for the trip. She is very nice and helpful and had already helped us get to San Pedro vom South Chile.On the day we were taken to the ranch by car, which is not far from the office in town. We then each got our horses, some gear (including helmet, which makes sense), some introduction and got going. We were three tourists in the group and our guide.So we slowly rode out of town on dusty roads trying to get to know our horses and how to handle them. Suprisingly, that was very easy! After just one or two hours, we all were very comfortable and safe and more or less knew how to go from one side of the road to the other, how to stop, keep going. The basics. For the rest of the day we kept going along dust roads and occasionally across some salt flats. It was interesting to see how brittle the surfaces are and how often horses would trip! Once in a while our guide would make the horses trott so we could get used to it. Not having been on horsebacks before that felt quite free and adventureous. After a nice lunch (provided) under a tree and in total about 5h of riding we arrived a a salt lagoon to camp there for the night, which was brilliant. All the day-trip-tourists had left so we had the lagoon for ourselves. Our very friendly guide had prepared a very tasty meal including some great bean / pea soup and nice deserts. After that and setting up our tents we waited for the stars come out and enjoyed our beers and red wine (provided).Day two started not so early, which is nice in general, and after a great breakfast we got going again. Today would lead us through valle de la lunatico. The going this day was more rough, we hardly used roads anymore. Also, our guide probably thought that after one day we now knew how to ride properly and encouraged us to trot some more, which we happily did. Again, the surreal landscapes with thick layers of salt and even some small rivers were great! After I think 6h of riding we neared our tenting spot for the night, not before our guide, with a grin on his face, galloped up a dune which made our horses do the same and follow him. That was a quick surprise but very very cool and by now we felt like real cowboys.Another night under one of the best starry skies I've ever seen, some more great food, beer and wine, and we happily fell asleep in our tents.Day three then led us back to San Pedro. Our arrival there was estimated at 3.30pm. However, on this day we were free to decide how fast we wanted to go which led us trying to get our horses to gallop a lot, which worked pretty well. So this day would become very thrilling, fun and exhausting. Some paths along mountain ranges we took were scaringly steep but the horses seemed to know what they were doing.Finally, we arrived at the ranch at 2.30, said goodbye to our horses and were taken back to the city.All in all this was one of the best trips we had done in Chile. It is not exactly cheap, but then you get provisions for three days and having a ranch and taking care of so many horses probably isn't cheap either. Plus, taking day trips probably adds up to something as well. I'm glad we did three days. Had we done only 2 or even 1, we would have missed out on the galloping and the feeling of adventure. However, going more than three days is probably something you can do if you have prior experience.Oh and the best moment on the trip was trying to pass a bottle of water to my friend from horsebacks. Took us 20 minutes to get the horses aligned and close enough, much to the amusement of our guide.

Leckeres Essen. Freundliche Bedienung. Angenehmes Ambiente. Portionen könntem großer sein.

Food was fresh and tasty. One of our favourite restaurants in San Pedro de atacama.